Newly released surveillance footage of a middle school lunch-hour fight shows an off-duty police officer in Kenosha, Wi., placing his knee on a 12-year-old girl's neck to subdue her on Mar. 4, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Jerrel Perez, the girl's father, has been asking the Kenosha Unified School District to release the footage. Perez argues the district attorney should bring charges against officer Shawn Guetschow for placing his knee on Perez's daughter's neck to restrain her, a move that was banned for Wisconsin law enforcement officers last year.
Surveillance footage appears to show another student approach Perez’s daughter, before Perez’s daughter pushes the other student and a fight ensues. Almost immediately Guetschow, 37, intervenes by pulling the other student off Perez’s daughter. Guetschow scuffles with Perez’s daughter, before falling to the ground and striking his head on a cafeteria table. Guetschow then restrains Perez’s daughter by pushing her head into the ground and placing her in a chokehold restraint for roughly 25 seconds, using his knee on the girl’s neck. The officer then handcuffs the girl and walks her out of the cafeteria. Perez's attorney, Drew Devinney, plans to file a lawsuit against the officer, school district and police department. Guetschow resigned from his part-time security job with the school.
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